Hello,im a Christian,and i am not baptised.İm 17 by now and im starting my RCİA's in a year.But im really worried about how right/wrong for me is it to get baptised and receive other sacrements.İ've been to homosexual relationships but that was before i met Jesus Christ.İm really determined.İm not going to be in any homosexual act for the rest of my life.Jesus saved me from that,i dont want to be in homosexual acts.But im still into guys.Can i get baptised and receive salvation?

You are a person who has same sex attraction. It is something you have; it is not something that you are. The Lord has called you to follow Him and you are responding. You say that you are still into guys, meaning that you are still sexually attracted to men. This is a cross that the Lord has asked you to carry. But it does not define who you are. The Lord’s relationship with you is what defines who you are. Center your life on Him and you will have no reason to fear falling into temptation. Start spending regular time with Him before the tabernacle. He seeks intimacy with you. Reflect on His Passion and all that He endured for you and thank Him. I am putting a reflection below to help you focus. You are in our prayers. Welcome home!

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.

Reflection on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ +

The agony in the garden was really the agony in His mind. He suffered the passion in His mind before He suffered it in His body—to the point of actually affecting the latter by sweating blood. From here on, the mental and physical suffering played off each other and caused Him greater pain.

At the base of all His suffering was the one thing that human beings dread the most: rejection. He was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and abandoned by all the rest of His Apostles; those He had hand-picked as His closest intimates. He was most rejected by those who put Him to death. They not only wanted Him dead, they wanted Him more than dead.. They wanted Him to suffer. This significance was not lost on Him. He felt fully the rejection as each physical agony reminded Him.

So we thank Him for joining us on our human journey and actually choosing to experience what we fear the most. We thank Him for enduring the arrest and the cruelty of the guards and the Sanhedrin. We thank Him for enduring the cruelty of Pilate who allowed Him to be executed rather than risk his own political ruin—and for the cruelty of Herod who considered Him not worth his time. We thank Him for all the time He spent satisfying their preoccupation with themselves, just delaying His ultimate death. We thank Him for the anxiety of that night in a cell.

The next morning He was brutally scourged whips, then with whips with nobs at the end, and finally with whips with hooks that gouged out chunks of flesh. There was blood everywhere. The loss of so much blood not only severely weakened Him; it also caused a severe, throbbing headache that remained with Him for the duration.

We thank Him for this and for the mockery He received when they put a dirty purple cloth on His shoulders and open wounds, pushing a crown of thorns down into His head which intensified His headache. They blindfolded Him and struck Him, insisting that He ‘prophesy’ who had hit Him. Yet they were the ones who couldn’t see. They spat on Him and beat Him.

He stood at the praetorium in utter disgrace according to the attitude of the crowd—while in reality, He stood in utter glory: almighty God, being present to every person who has ever suffered rejection, joining them in their moment of pain. It was there that He was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Physically, He was utterly miserable. He revealed to St. Bernard that carrying the cross was His most painful agony. He was so weak, He could hardly walk. Nauseous and thirsty, He found the weight of the cross on His shoulder almost unbearable. It most likely dislocated His shoulder. It is not surprising that He fell down three times on the stone streets that were filthy with animal dung—with the cross on top of Him. And He got up each time.

It was only with the help of Simon of Cyrene that He made it to the top of Calvary. There they drove the nails into the carpal tunnels of His hands, causing pain throughout His upper body. The nail in His feet registered great pain through all the sensitive nerves there.

Here His agony was at its peak. After three hours of hanging there He had come to the point where His lack of strength simply was no match for what is known as Sepsis where the bloodstream is overwhelmed by bacteria, and in this eternal moment He died, giving us His life. Transcending time, this moment of divine love is present to us on the altars and in the tabernacles of the world. Thank you, Lord. We adore you O Christ and we praise you. By your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.